Arizona defeats Oregon State, 89-63

The Arizona Wildcats cruised to an easy victory Thursday night in Tucson. The Beavers committed 20 turnovers and sent Arizona to the line far too often, to the tune of 28 free throw attempts. Jarod Lucas had a nice game off the bench scoring 18 points for the Beavs. But Arizona’s star studded freshman were too much as Nico Mannion, Josh Green and Zeke Nnaji dominated from start to finish.

Things took an ugly turn in the 2nd half when Tres Tinkle was ejected from the game for receiving his second technical foul. Tres’ elbow connected with Jemarl Baker Jr.’s face as he drove to the basket. Tres received his first technical in the 1st half for arguing with an Arizona player.

Despite strong agreement and encouragement from the home crowd on the ejection; Arizona’s head coach Sean Miller did not agree with the the decision eject Tres. Here’s what he had to say after the game courtesy of Ryan Kelapire of AZ Desert Swarm:

“It’s unfortunate that he had to exit the game on that play. I don’t look at that as a cheap shot in any way, shape or form. It is what it is. He might have connected above the shoulders, but I know he’s a great kid, high-character guy. I’m not saying this because his dad’s the coach. I think it’s even harder to be a great player when your dad is the coach. It’s not an advantage, and many times it’s a disadvantage, but he is a monster player. He’s First-Team All Pac-12 last year, this year, and I’m just really glad that he’s not going to be playing against us next year.”

The win for Arizona avenged their worst loss of the season when they visited Corvallis in early January. The Beavers will try to regroup and get ready for another tough road contest against the Arizona State Sun Devils.